Mitt Romney’s argument for choosing him as the Republican presidential nominee is that he’s the guy with the best chance of beating Obama. And through much of the early stages of the Republican race, polls did tend to show he had a better chance than most of the GOP wannabes like Michelle Bachmann, Herman Cain and Ron Paul. But now that looks to have sowed up the nomination (unless the Lord raises St. Newt from the dead), the latest poll shows he’s miles back of the president. Miles. Like, 52% to 43%. Plus, 55 percent of people who claim to paying close attention to the race say they disapprove of the GOP message, and, by a 2-to-1 margin, they say the more they learn about Romney, the less they like him. Ew, yuck, hardly good news for the Republicans. It’s in a week when Romney told an interviewer he doesn’t waste much time worrying about poor people, and made the mistake of posing with Donald Trump, as if anyone in the universe would be impressed by Trump’s endorsement. (Those who might likely couldn’t figure out the compexities of actually getting out of bed to vote). It’s still (relatively) early days, but Mitt’s got to pull up his socks if he’s going to gain ground on Obama.

Aw, the big strong football player needs his wife to stand up for him. Tom Brady’s supermodel wife Gisele, ticked off at taunts about her hubby having lost the Super Bowl, mouthed off at some New York fans: “You (have) to catch the ball when you’re supposed to catch the ball,” Gisele snapped. “My husband cannot f**king throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can’t believe they dropped the ball so many times.” Such language Gisele. Maybe next year she can appear in the half-time show and give everyone the finger.

Oh the drama, the excitement, the non-stop back-and-forth action! No not the Super Bowl, you clucks, Toronto City Council! Rob Ford won the biggest victory of his mayoralty on the weekend when he bludgeoned unions into caving to demands for fewer benefits and no more jobs for life. Ford fans celebrated with roasted meat and Viking songs. But barely had they lit the bonfire than the victory was spoiled by news that TTC chairhuman Karen Stintz had mounted a successful revolt against his all-subways-all-the-time transit plan. Stintz was appointed to make sure everyone at the TTC nodded in unison whenever Ford opened his mouth, but subsequently concluded his subway plan just didn’t make sense. Good time for a compromise, and His Fordship would have been smart to listen to Stintz. But listening isn’t a Ford strong point, so now she has 24 council signatures on a petition to dump the Ford plan and revert to David Miller’s Transit City plan. Fie on you Stintz.

A poll says 62% of Canadian are opposed to fracking. Why do they do polls on stuff no one understands? I doubt even 1% of Canadians have the faintest idea what fracking is about. But they’re against it, right?

The Mowat centre says in a Really Big Study that equalization is unconstitutional and a giant rip-off that penalizes seven provinces for the benefit of three. Go ahead, just guess which three. (Hint: Quebec is one of them).

Another study (the study business is booming these days) says OAS and CPP are mainly a benefit to Quebec and the Maritimes, and least important in Ontario, B.C. and Alberta. Does this or the Mowat study come as a surprise to anyone? Haven’t we always known that Canada’s federal transfers are about taking money from prosperous, productive province and shipping them off to chronically underperforming parts of the country?

Australia spends $7 billion a year more than Canada on defence, even though it’s half the size and has half the economy. So why do we snivel so much about it? Australians see national security as paramount; why don’t Canadians? (Because, dear boy, we’re a bunch of snivellers who prefer sending our money to off to chronically underperforming parts of the country.